20101121
Zimbabwe Standard

The Southern African Development Community (Sadc) mediation in Zimbabwe faltered again on Friday after the bloc's organ on politics, defence and security failed to meet.

The highly anticipated meeting was cancelled after the chairman of the troika, Zambian President Ruppiah Banda failed to turn up as he had just returned from Brazil.

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza was also not available for yet-to-be-known reasons.

Zimbabwe's fast deteriorating situation was supposed to top the agenda of the troika meeting ahead of the official opening of Sadc's new headquarters in Gaborone, Botswana yesterday.

The heads of State and government were supposed to consider the report of the troika that includes Zambia, Mozambique and Namibia on how to deal with worsening political problems in Zimbabwe and Madagascar.

South African President Jacob Zuma was supposed to attend as the Sadc designated mediator in the talks aimed at keeping the fragile Harare administration intact.

President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara had all travelled to Gaborone for the make-or-break meeting.

The cancellation of the meeting left Tsvangirai's camp fuming amid allegations that the Sadc secretariat led by executive secretary Tomaz Salamao had deliberately mishandled the programme.

In the past, Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) and Salamao have repeatedly clashed over the way the regional body has handled their dispute with Mugabe. The MDC-T feels Sadc has been protecting Mugabe.

"The Sadc troika summit failed to take off ostensibly because the chair, President Rupiah Banda is in Brazil while President Guebuzza of Mozambique did not turn up," Tsvangirai's spokesman, Luke Tambirinyoka said from Gaborone yesterday.

"Only the facilitator, President Zuma was around. This means Zimbabwe will not be discussed when the heads of state and government meet later today."

He said they were surprised that the Sadc secretariat decided to call for the troika summit when they knew the two presidents were not available.

Efforts to get a comment from Salamao were fruitless yesterday.

All eyes were on the Sadc meeting to resolve the impasse in the shaky unity government, which has been lurched from one crisis to another and is now hanging by the thread.

Tsvangirai says he no longer sees eye-to-eye with Mugabe and the former opposition leader has been avoiding cabinet and traditional Monday meetings for the three principals since the tension started escalating last month.

A fortnight ago, the Senate was forced to adjourn to February next year after MDC-T senators protested the presence of Zanu PF governors in the House.

The party says Mugabe violated the Global Political Agreement by re-appointing the governors without consulting Tsvangirai and the standoff has virtually crippled the legislative agenda of the transitional government.

Tamborinyoka said the cancellation of the Gaborone meeting had dealt a heavy blow to hopes that regional leaders would step in to stop the deteriorating human rights situation in the country characterised by the arrests of journalists.

MDC-T spokesman Nelson Chamisa said it was time Sadc and the African Union realised that Zimbabwe had reached a tipping point.

"The deepening of the crisis is likely to result in despicable and imponderable consequences for the people of Zimbabwe who have been victims of this political crisis for a long time. There is a real danger of sliding back," he said.

Sources said Zuma is now expected to visit Zimbabwe to try and break the impasse. An extra-ordinary Sadc summit to deal with the problems in Harare is likely to be held before Christmas.